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on Transport Economics |
| By: | Wangsness, Paal Brevik (Institute of Transport Economics – Norwegian Centre for Transport Research); Proost, Stef (Department of Economics-KULeuven); Rødseth, Kenneth Løvold (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Norway has the world’s highest share of electric vehicles in its vehicle stock – in particular battery electric vehicles (BEVs). BEVs have reached a 20% share of the new car sales in Norway, thanks to a set of policies that include high purchase taxes for fossil fueled cars, and for BEVs, free parking, no tolls, and the right to drive on the bus lanes. This paper uses a stylized model of the transport market in the greater Oslo area (1.2 million inhabitants) to analyze transport policies. First, we explore the medium-term effects of the current BEV friendly policies. Second, the model is used to explore the potential of better pricing of car and public transport use, and of better car purchase taxes. We find that the current policies lead to massive penetration of BEVs and therefore to a strong reduction of CO2 emissions. However, they also lead to much more congestion and a decrease in the use of public transport. Better policies require efficient pricing of road congestion, a better use of public transport, and provide incentives for consumers to choose the most efficient combinations of cars. Such policies lead to a less extreme penetration of BEVs, and lower CO2 emissions reductions than the current transport policies. However, they do achieve a better transport equilibrium and substantial resource cost savings, leading to higher welfare levels. |
| Keywords: | electric vehicles; climate policy; urban transport policy; transport modeling |
| JEL: | H23 H71 Q54 Q58 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2018–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2018_002&r=tre |
| By: | Jesús Rodríguez (Department of Economics, University Pablo de Olavide); José L. Torres (Department of Economics, University of Málaga) |
| Abstract: | Road congestion is a negative externality associated to automobile use and can negatively affects drivers’ utility in several directions, such as delay time and wasted fuel, but also can have a negative impact on aggregate productivity. This paper develops a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model to study the interactions between roads, traffic, congestion and productivity over the business cycle. In our model households receive services from vehicles, depending on the flow kilometers driving and on the stock of cars, and they do not take into account their own impact on congestion, which also depends on the stock of roads. Following a positive aggregate productivity shock, traffic density and congestion tend to rise, so dampening its positive effects on aggregate activity. The model is then used to study the process behind the so-called ”Fundamental Law of Highways Congestion”, which states that an increase in the stock of roads produces a traffic density rise of same proportion, thus leaving congestion unaffected in the long run. Our model economy reproduce a rise in output in response to a road capacity expansion and predicts a traffic flow elasticity of 0.172, as a direct consequence of the positive impact of the higher stock of roads on economic activity. Finally, we derive a Pigouvian tax schedule that internalizes the social costs of congestion |
| Keywords: | Road traffic; Congestion; The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion; Dynamic General Equilibrium model |
| JEL: | E32 R41 R42 R48 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mal:wpaper:2018-2&r=tre |
| By: | Robin Lindsey (University of Alberta [Edmonton]); André De Palma (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Hugo Silva (Instituto Superior Técnico - Technical University of Lisbon) |
| Abstract: | Individual users often control a significant share of total traffic flows. Examples include airlines, rail and maritime freight shippers, urban goods delivery companies and passenger transportation network companies. These users have an incentive to internalize the congestion delays their own vehicles impose on each other by adjusting the timing of their trips. We investigate simultaneous trip-timing decisions by large users and small users in a dynamic model of congestion. Unlike previous work, we allow for heterogeneity of trip-timing preferences and for the presence of small users such as individual commuters and fringe airlines. We derive the optimal fleet departure schedule for a large user as a best-response to the aggregate departure rate of other users. We show that when the vehicles in a large user's fleet have a sufficiently dispersed distribution of desired arrival times, there may exist a pure-strategy Nash-equilibrium (PSNE) in which the large user schedules vehicles when there is a queue. This resolves the problem of non-existence of a PSNE identified in Silva et al. (2017) for the case of symmetric large users. We also develop some examples to identify under what conditions a PSNE exists. The examples illustrate how self-internalization of congestion by a large user can affect the nature of equilibrium and the travel costs that it and other users incur. |
| Keywords: | departure-time decisions,bottleneck model,congestion,schedule delay costs,large users,user heterogeneity,existence of Nash equilibrium $ |
| Date: | 2018–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-01760135&r=tre |
| By: | Colin Green; John Spencer Heywood; Maria Navarro Paniagua |
| Abstract: | We examine the London congestion charge introduced in 2003 and demonstrate significant reductions in a number of pollutants relative to controls. We even find evidence of reductions per mile driven suggesting amelioration of a congestion externality. Yet, we find a robust countervailing increase in harmful NO2 likely reflecting the disproportionate share of diesel vehicles exempt from the congestion charge. This unintended consequence informs on-going concern about pollution from diesel based vehicles and provides a cautionary note regarding substitution effects implicit in congestion charging schemes. |
| Keywords: | Pollution, Traffic, Congestion Charging |
| JEL: | I18 R48 H27 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:237385060&r=tre |
| By: | Kevin R. Williams (Cowles Foundation, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Airfares are determined by both intertemporal price discrimination and dynamic adjustment to stochastic demand. I estimate a model of dynamic airline pricing accounting for both forces with new flight-level data. With model estimates, I disentangle key interactions between the arrival pattern of consumer types and remaining capacity under stochastic demand. I show that the forces are complements in airline markets and lead to significantly higher revenues, as well as increased consumer surplus, compared to a more restrictive pricing regime. Finally, I show that abstracting from stochastic demand leads to a systematic bias in estimating demand elasticities. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic pricing, Intertemporal price discrimination, Price discrimination, Stochastic demand, Pricing, Airlines, Dynamic discrete choice |
| JEL: | L11 L12 L93 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2103&r=tre |
| By: | Simone Tagliapietra; Georg Zachmann |
| Abstract: | The issue Under the Paris Agreement, the European Union has committed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Between 1990 and 2015, emissions decreased significantly in all sectors with the exception of transport, which has seen a 20 percent increase. Transport is thus becoming a key obstacle to EU decarbonisation and more aggressive policies are needed to decarbonise this sector. A particular focus should be decarbonisation of road transport because it is responsible for more than 70 percent of overall transport emissions. Decarbonising road transport would also improve air quality in cities, which remains a fundamental challenge for better public health in Europe. Policy challenge So far, national and EU policies have failed to foster road transport decarbonisation. However, this trend can be reversed by adopting a new EU post-2020 strategy with three main components. First, the EU should foster political momentum and encourage countries and cities to adopt plans to ban all diesel and petrol vehicles by 2030-2040. This would be a strong signal to the automotive industry to invest more strongly in clean vehicles, and to citizens to adopt more sustainable transport modes. The EU should provide support to countries and cities that take this route though a new EU Clean Transport Fund. Second, the EU should promote a Europe-wide discussion about the future of transport taxation. Third, the EU should focus its transport-related research and innovation funding on supporting new clean technologies that are not yet viable, but are potentially key to ensure deep decarbonisation of road transport in the longer term. |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:polbrf:25038&r=tre |
| By: | Cyprien Richer (Cerema Direction Nord-Picardie - Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement - Direction Nord-Picardie - Cerema - Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement) |
| Abstract: | Au moment où se déroulent les Assises nationales de la mobilité, le versement transport fait l’objet de nombreux débats. Instrument privilégié du financement des transports publics urbains en France depuis les années 1970, cet impôt a connu des évolutions complexes et contradictoires, au point d’être aujourd’hui vivement contesté. Cyprien Richer en retrace les principales étapes et dégage les enjeux attachés à sa transformation. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01678263&r=tre |